Kewpie Potato Salad

I learned how to make this salad in elementary school in Japan. It's my go-to dish for taking to potlucks and barbecues. We took it to one Friday night, and it was kind of a hit.

Ingredients:
4 big potatoes, peeled (white is good, but any kind is okay as long as they're big)
1-2 handfuls of baby carrots (depending on how much you like carrots)
1 cucumber, half-peeled (unpeeled is okay; "half-peeled" is peeling strips down the side so it looks like it's striped)
4 eggs
Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise (see illustration)
Fresh-ground pepper (to taste)
Salt

1. Boil the eggs.

2. Dice the potatoes into 1 inch cubes - not too small. Cut baby carrots into halves or thirds. Dump potatoes and carrots into large pot, fill with water, and bring to boil.

3. Boil potatoes and carrots until they're soft enough that you can easily pierce them with a knife, but not so soft that they crumble.

4. While you're waiting for the potatoes and carrots to boil, but the cucumber into thin slices. Sprinkle a little salt over the sliced cucumber. Then wrap the sliced, salted cucumber in a paper towel and squeeze. The idea is to get as much moisture out of the cucumber as you can, so that when you put them into the salad it doesn't get soggy.

5. Drain potatoes and carrots and return them to the pot you boiled them in. Keep the stove on high heat and hold the pot over the burner so it's not touching (if it's electric) or slightly high over the flame (if it's gas). Shake the pot so that the heat dries the potatoes and carrots completely, but don't let them burn. You'll know you're done when the sides and bottom of the pot turn whitish from potato starch, and when the corners of the potato cubes get rounded.

6. Dump potatoes and carrots into large mixing bowl. Squeeze some Kewpie over the top. You'll be using as much Kewpie as you feel you need - there's no set measurement to this. Add some, then mix, then add some more, mix some more, until you're satisfied. You may need to mash the potatoes and carrots a little while you mix, but don't mash them smooth. By squishing them a little, the taste of the potatoes and carrots mixes well with the Kewpie, but if you squish them too much the whole thing turns into a heavy paste. You want to keep it fluffy.

7. Using an egg slicer/dicer thingie, dice three of the boiled eggs and add to the mix.

8. Add cucumber and mix. Cucumbers should be added last, not long before eating, because they'll make the salad soggy. So, if you're making this in the morning to take to someone's barbecue in the evening, keep the cucumbers out and add them right before you leave in the evening.

9. Season to taste with pepper; mix.

10. Cut remaining boiled egg in half and remove the yolk. Crumble half the yolk (or all of it, depending on your preference) over the salad as a garnish. Voila!

This potato salad is better if it's not refrigerated, so if possible make it close enough to serving time that it's still a little bit warm.

Falafel

Here's another bean recipe, inspired by the fact that I'm making them tonight. The name "falafel" here is used in its loosest sense--not super authentic, but easy and tasty.

Falafel:
1 15-oz can chickpeas (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 Tbsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
dash cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of parsley
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg
oil for frying (you can actually deep fry them, but I just saute in a little oil)

1. Boil chickpeas for 3-5 minutes to soften them up, then drain and rinse them with cold water (if you don't do the cold water they'll be too hot to hand-form--I've made this mistake).
2. While beans are boiling, mix all dry ingredients together in small bowl.
3. Mash chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and egg in large bowl (a fork works just fine for mashing). Once that's mashed to your liking, add dry mixture and stir until well-coated and sticking together.
4. Heat oil in frying pan on medium. Form mixture into four to six patties and saute 3-4 minutes a side, or longer if you want them crispier.

The great thing about this recipe (besides the quickness) is that all the spices are totally negotiable. I gave you the list that came with the original recipe, but I never really follow it. Often I skip most of the spices and chop up a bunch of sun-dried tomatoes instead (you jus throw them in with the wet stuff). My other favorites are Italian style (garlic, onion, oregano, basil, what-have-you) or spicy southwest style (once I pick up some chipotle powder as per Taryn's suggestion, I bet it will go great in these).

Sometimes I use these as hamburger patties, sometimes we just make them and eat them with veggies on the side.

Brother Momonjii's Japanese Curry, Variation #1 (Summer)

Curry, Japanese-style, was probably the first thing I learned how to make on my own when I was learning how to cook. And it's still a staple around the Momonjii house - we make it about once every couple of weeks, probably more often in the winter. Since the "curry" aspect of it is store-bought, it may not count as "cooking," at least not in polite company, but at the very least it's "meal preparation," and it's kept us alive and happy. I've worked out a number of variations that we find pretty satisfying, and here's the most recent.

Caveat: It should probably go without saying that Japanese-style curry doesn't really belong in the same category as Indian cuisine. But I'll say it anyway. If it helps, we can call Japanese curry "kare" instead.

Summer Curry #1

Ingredients:
1 large box Java brand curry roux, medium hot (Java is one of the brands of curry readily available at Asian groceries in the US, so it shouldn't be too hard to find)
2 medium-smallish potatoes (Yukon gold)
1 zucchini
1 summer squash
1 bunch scallions (sometimes called spring onions: the kind with the bulb at the end)
frozen peas
1 boneless pork chop (optional)
white pepper
herb de Provence
sunflower seeds (shelled, unsalted)
Parmesan cheese
rice

Note: meat is optional in this recipe. If you're not using it, just follow the directions but ignore the meat.

1. Cut all your veggies into largish chunks. Cut the pork chop into smallish chunks.

2. Melt a little butter in a large soup kettle and sautee the pork over medium-high heat just until it starts to turn whitish-brown. Grind a little white pepper over the pork while you're sauteeing it. Add the potatoes and sautee just a little while. Sauteeing in a soup kettle, you're going to get things burning very quickly, so the object here isn't to cook the items through, but just to sear the outsides of the pork and potatoes.

3. Add a couple of cups of water, turn heat up to high and bring to a boil.

4. When the water's boiling, add the zucchini, summer squash, onions and some frozen peas, as many as you like.

5. Now you'll probably need to add more water. The one thing about Japanese curry that's hard for me to quantify is the amount of water. You can follow the directions on the box, if the importer has translated them for you, but they usually call for 5-6 cups of water, and I find that's way too much. I usually use about half, but I judge by eye rather than measure. Here's how I do it. I aim for enough water to cover the veggies, but not enough so that that they're bobbing around freely. If in doubt, err on the side of too little water. You can always add water to a curry that's too thick, but if you make it too thin there's nothing you can really do about it.

6. Add a couple of dashes of herb de Provence to the water.

7. Boil everything until the pork is done and the veggies are soft.

8. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the whole box of curry roux. Stir until the curry is completely dissolved.

9. Let it simmer for five or ten minutes. As soon as the curry is dissolved it's basically done, but letting it simmer for a while helps the taste blend. If you find the curry too thick for your liking at this point, you can always add a little water. If you find it too thin at this point, you can boil it at a low temperature for a while and it will thicken up a little.

10. While simmering, toss in a handful of sunflower seeds.

11. Serve over white rice. Garnish to taste with fresh-grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes: We prefer slightly spicy curries in the summer. Java Curry tends to the spicy side anyway, and with the white pepper and stuff it gets nice and tangy... This recipe will make a lot of curry; just refrigerate whatever's left and eat it the next day. Japanese curry tastes even better the second day... Parmesan cheese may sound like an odd addition to Japanese curry, but it really sets off the flavor of a tangy, summer-veggie curry like this quite nicely.

Help Me Use My Eggs

So I have a bunch of eggs that I don't know what to do with. I mean, I know how to boil them or fry them or whatever, but does anyone have suggestions for something more exciting than that? I'm thinking more dinner-y than baked goods-y. Any thoughts? Favorite egg dishes? It doesn't have to taste like eggs, just use them up in the service of something tasty.

Pancakes: The Sequel

Brother's right, we should have posted the recipe.

1 cup flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg or egg replacer
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional, but tasty!)

1. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. In small bowl, combine wet ingredients.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until moistened.
4. Heat lightly greased skillet on stovetop. Use about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake and bake about 2 min. per side.

Makes 8 to 10 pancakes.

This is actually our "half recipe" version, which makes a light breakfast's worth of pancakes for two people. If you double it, you'll end up with 2 very full people.

Also, I just learned a really neat baking fact: Don't mix this until smooth. Pancake batter is supposed to be lumpy--lumpy means some of the baking powder will be not activated yet, leaving it to activate while the pancakes are cooking. That makes them rise better. Neat, huh?

Before Eric, I pretty much used Bisquick, too, but I put Eric in charge of breakfast and he just uses regular flour.

Saturday Pancakes

My favorite sister is visiting for the day, so we made a double batch of pancakes this week. I remember making double batches for just the two of us back when we were first married, but now I can't figure out how we ate so much.

In other news, a Food and Cooking Q&A site is now in beta. I've used other sites with the same model, and it really is the best way to get great answers to your questions quickly. Granted, it depends on having a community of experts willing and able to answer the submitted questions.

white bean salad with feta-pita crisps

Hi All. Here's another WW recipe we eat all the time. It's vegetarian and perfect for summer.

ingredients:
1 (15.5 oz) can great northern beans
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 small red onion
1/4 c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (i always use dried....it's fine)
2 tsp olive oil
lemon juice to taste (i would estimate either 1/2 a lemon or maybe two long squirts from a lemon juice bottle)
black pepper
salt
4 (7") whole wheat pitas
1 c. crumbled feta (reduced fat if you care)

directions:
pre-heat the broiler
toss together beans, bell pepper, onion, parsley, lemon, pepper and salt
lay pitas on a baking sheet and sprinkle evenly with feta
broil 5 inches from the heat until the cheese is melted and pitas are crisp (i like it when they get a little burney- 3 to 5 minutes-ish)
cut pitas into wedges, serve with the bean salad on the side
we like to spoon the salad over each crisp and eat it that way. all together it's very very delicious.